Playing around with the pitch phugoid

On Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at 3:06:51 PM UTC-5, Charlie M. (UH & 002
Ummmm...... chill a bit. Quite a few, "What if I went IFR in a sailplane" questions being bandied about recently.
1-A good pilot attempts to AVOID the "what if".
2-It won't be the first, or last, "issue" that "happens".
3-If it happens and the pilot is not equipped and trained, it's likely yet another front page issue.
snip

Ok, deep breath, fresh cup of coffee...

My frustration is with the OP's refusal to accept what has been proven over and over again in blood and bent metal: there is NO way to safely exit a fully developed IMC situation without either gyro instruments (and the skills to use them) or resorting to terminal dive brakes (rare these days) or maybe the retro method of a spin (in planes that will hold a stable spin long enough - also rare these days).

The benign spiral approach is fine in theory (anybody have any personal stories of using it for real to exit a cloud?) but is highly glider-specific and requires a stable starting condition - OK perhaps if you are trapped above or see that you are about to get trapped - but you better have practiced it A LOT before trying it for real - and it will do you no good once you have lost visual references and the airspeed and bank angle start to run away.

Sure, it's great to "what if" various scenarios. And I've done the same, and done my share of marginal flying in various aircraft in marginal conditions - and what I take from it is getting stuck unprepared in a cloud is about as bad as getting stuck in heavy sink in an unlandable box canyon - some things must be avoided at all costs!

Finally, what really got me was the OP's comment about pushing aggressively on the stick to control the airspeed. Maybe it's semantics, but to me that implies a forceful forward motion of the stick - which in my glider at cruise speed would bring the dead cats out of the bottom of the cockpit and result in a RAPID increase in airspeed to potentially dangerous levels. I wonder how often the OP has done speed sweeps in his glider, seeing how long it takes to accelerate from cruise to redline, and how little forward stick it take to do it?

Kirk
66

I must sheepishly admit that some years ago I allowed myself to become accidentally enveloped while flying the wave at Minden in a G103. I did indeed use the benign spiral to exit the cloud safely, after I considered other options to be exhausted. This involved a descent of over 1500 feet. It worked perfectly, and I consider that it saved my life -- I stupidly had no parachute with me on that flight. Even still, I can't recommend the procedure without reservation because it doesn't seem to work in all gliders, or even in that glider every time. But I can tell you that it worked once, even in turbulent conditions.


Lynn Alley
"2KA"